Catch up on this ONlit recording featuring Ontario educators Erika Chesnick and Jordan Ingola. In this session, Erika and Jordan provided a high-level overview of the thinkSRSD approach to teaching writing, along with real-life examples from Ontario classrooms. This webinar offered educators an opportunity to deepen their understanding of thinkSRSD and shared practical strategies they…
Learning Through Literacy is ONlit’s approach to integrated structured literacy instruction aligned with the Ontario Language Curriculum. Each grade level includes a selection of connected practices that show students how language, literacy, and curriculum areas work together through engagement with meaningful, Canadian content. Across the resource, educators will find features such as high-quality mentor texts,…
This resource features a collection of thinkSRSD-inspired POWeR (Plan, Organize, Write, Revise) cycles designed specifically for Grade 3 writers. Each cycle supports students in becoming strategic writers through explicit instruction in key strategies, with built-in opportunities to connect writing instruction to Grade 3 content areas. Topics include: Terry Fox Beaver dams Regions and jobs How…
Self-Regulated Strategy Development, or SRSD, is a structured and explicit instructional model designed to help students improve their writing skills by teaching them both writing strategies and self-regulation skills. The SRSD model focuses on providing students with clear and simple strategies to support their writing, while also teaching them how to plan, monitor, and evaluate…
Syntax is often overlooked and misunderstood, but is KEY to reading and writing proficiency! This series presents research on syntax and explains its critical role in comprehending complex text, reading fluency, and writing coherent sentences. Armed with this understanding, educators learned how to teach their students the functions of sentence parts—words, phrases, and clauses—in order…
The Writing Pathway, researched by Dr. Steve Graham, makes high-quality writing instruction accessible to all, blending a researched approach with AI tools that save educators time. Teachers can create writing practice for any topic or content area across grades 3-12.
Embedded picture mnemonics are a research-based way to teach children about letters and the sounds they represent. They are letter cards with a picture of a key word embedded directly in a letter, such as the letter z made out of a zipper, or the letter r made out of a road. Research indicates that…
The chapters in this anthology, by a range of expert authors, delve into the relationship between writing and reading (as well as oral language), offering both extensive research and ideas for practice. While the research can be a bit heavy at times (this is not a “quick tips to use tomorrow” kind of book), there…
Literacy LIFTER (Letter Identification and Formation for Transcription and Early Reading) is a free tool designed to empower educators and caregivers in supporting students’ handwriting and early reading skills. It provides users with evidence-based materials to teach handwriting and letter knowledge (i.e., letter names and sounds) to pre-kindergarten and elementary-aged students. This resource includes materials…
In the “Teaching TV: Learning with Television” lesson from Elizabeth Verrall’s five-part unit for elementary classrooms, students are introduced to television as an informative source and its presentation from specific perspectives. The lesson aims to cultivate students’ ability to derive information from media, identify and use information from various sources, including television, recognize informative TV…
The “Teaching TV: Television Techniques” lesson, a component of Elizabeth Verrall’s comprehensive five-part unit for elementary education, offers educators valuable insights for incorporating TV education in classrooms. By guiding students in creating their own media productions, the lesson imparts a practical understanding of how technology and film techniques are harnessed in television to convey meaning…
Watching this webinar from PaTTAN, you will learn why summarizing has been identified through research as highly effective for developing comprehension and writing. It defines a quality summary and how it differs from retelling or paraphrasing. Practical suggestions for explicitly teaching summary writing based on text and non-text sources will be shared, including scaffolds. The…
